reubensangwich

Thank you one and all! @Dr_Heech yup a tiny cuff will be possible when wearing them below my natural waist like I am here, but if I pull them up a bit they're perfectly scraping the tops of my shoes, honestly such a great cut and size for me, lots of versatility.

Nearly two months ago @Dr_Heech contacted me wondering if I’d be interested in acquiring a pair of mainline Conner’s from their heyday, his 41’s featured above. I jumped at the chance, and he was kind enough to throw in a bunch of fun stuff that he knew would pique my interest. The Original CSF box: Flashers, the CSF catalog, three CSF laminated info cards, and plenty of hem cut-offs for future repairs: The cutoffs from the 41’s, one from a pair of 313’s, and a bit of Blackseed denim from a pair of Roy’s (RIP): And now for the main event: I’ve been poring over these jeans for the past few days, and they are just spectacular. The denim is the real standout, it’s rough and textured, and makes me understand how folks used to be able to strike a match on their hamstring. They’re filled with great details like two-tone stitching and a reversed yoke; honestly these are what repros are all about in my opinion. If you could travel back in time and give these to a ranch-hand in Arizona, I doubt they’d be able to tell that they were made in Japan in 2019, and not in San Francisco in 1941. Fit: I couldn’t be happier with them, they are wide and comfortable, but I can keep the waistband cinched so they don’t feel sloppy. On top of that Doc has faded them beautifully. Now to do some home-repairs of the pockets to keep in the vintage spirit. Thanks again, Charlie, these’ll be a beloved pair for a long time.

@DemiGxd check out the Mister Freedom Medalist, I recently picked one up second hand and it's quite nice. Has the cropped fit, and is definitely much thicker than the Warehouse freedom sleeve (I've got one of those too), plus it has an interesting little pocket on the right hip/oblique that fits a phone pretty perfectly.

Been loving the 131's as a departure from the 501 style, I'm also wearing these a lot looser than I usually wear jeans, could've easily gone with a size 2 instead of the 3 I'm wearing. That's alright though, it gives me a bit of versatility; I can hike them up and cinch down a belt for a more put-together look, or I can wear them slung low around my hips for something more casual. I got them hemmed to 31", and I'm hoping they stay right there, because I'm finding I love the way they look with a ~2" cuff.

First day in my Tenders Persol, Lee, Big Mac, Tender, Chippewa

Type 131 “Lost Jeans” in Unborn denim size 3 Hot washed and dried, hemmed at Self Edge NY

Lot 601XX 1947, The Vanishing West hardware is just stunning.

Persol, Butcher Products, Frostproof, William Burke, TVW, Kleman

American Optical, The Vanishing West, Buzz, Colimbo, Stepney Workers Club

I'm with Julian, I think they'll turn out fantastic.

Type 131, it certainly has taper, but the top block is quite roomy and after a hem the taper is reduced a bit. My pair in a size 3 have a 42cm waist, 29.5cm front rise, 38 cm back rise, 30.5 cm thigh (10 cm down from the crotch) and a 21.5 cm leg opening (after being hemmed to 77cm.) Although as we all know, measurements are not everything, I find the rise wears shorter than it measures. You should definitely reach out to William via email, he's very responsive and helpful, went back and forth with him for a bit before I decided to go with the 131.

Add my name to the list @Broark. Type 131 in the unborn denim, though I've already soaked and had them hemmed, they are unworn.

@somatoform The cut on these is interesting to say the least, plenty of space in the waist and the seat, the thigh however can get quite slim, particularly if you've got larger legs. Your biggest concern should be how they feel through the thighs, I have a pair and the waist stretches out a good amount and fairly easily. Also, I washed them hot and dried them, so if you run them through a cold cycle or just a soak and let them air dry you will almost certainly have different results. I'm usually a 31 or 32 depending on brand, as most shrink to tag size now, and went for a 33 (which measured 34" raw if I recall) in these; raw fit I was swimming in them, but after shrinking (hot wash, heavy agitation, hot dry) they were good and slim (waist shrunk to about 39cm across), if I were you I'd go with the 38 to be safe, you can always wear a belt or give them frequent washes to keep the waist in check, but if you went with the 36 I'd be worried the thigh would become too slim. As an aside, you might be better off moving on from LVC altogether, there's the odd fit, and then there's the somewhat shoddy construction, I had the crotch stitching begin to come undone after just a couple months of wear, and subsequently placed a rivet to shore the area up.

In theory I'd love a pair from Rebuilt, but like many of us I probably have plenty of 501 repros as it is. So I'm hoping for the Tender contest to be liberal regarding denim/cut, as I purchased a pair in the Unborn denim last month before the price increase.

Cushman 22501XX fit pics. Nice and roomy, these are a good contrast to my Vanishing West and Neat Style jeans which are much slimmer in the top block. Debating on if I should keep them before I decide to hem.

No worries, Doc, as a pencil pusher myself I’m never one to judge slow fades. It seems he never got away from those shallow front pockets, these 22501XX’s barely fit a modern phone, easily the shallowest pockets I’ve experienced yet. Those pictures of Flash’s jeans raw always make me smile, how Konaka could sew those up and look at that waist to hip ratio and think “yup that’s what I’m going for,” is perplexing. We’ve all heard of hip flare, but waistband flare? That’s a purely CSF anomaly.

Oh trust me, Double 0, I am very aware of the reason for the hype, some of my favorite slow-day-at-work reading happens to be the CSF threads here and on Denimbro, I’ve read both beginning to end a couple of times now. Plenty of juicy gossip, great discussion, and some absolutely fantastic fades, mostly courtesy of yourself and @Flash (not to discount @Broark, @Dr_Heech, or @beautiful_FrEaK’s contributions!) The whole reason I became interested in CSF was because people, such as the aforementioned, who had opinions on denim garments that I very much respect at this point said that a pair of jeans made by Konaka were about as close as you could get to real vintage. But I think I might just be missing something, my pieces from FW and Ooe feel like they capture the spirit of vintage much better. For FW it’s the gorgeous and infinitely interesting denim and the immaculate stitching that embodies that old world expert craftsmanship, and for Ooe it’s the obviously handmade quality it has to it. Maybe part of my problem is I’ve never gotten to handle the real thing, or perhaps this just isn’t the right pair? I believe I read a comment from Flash saying that the jeans made for Cushman have ironed instead of hand rolled seams, maybe there are other “shortcuts” he took that make them less special than mainline CSF? Who’s to say, we know the man himself would probably never give away such trade secrets. Either way I am a bit disappointed handling these vaunted jeans, but honestly at the end of the day that’s probably my own fault, they are just jeans after all. And trust me, I am all too familiar with the intentional “wonkiness” that is rampant nowadays… “improperly” placed rivets that sit in the perfectly improper place, the one leg chain stitch one leg lock stitch, the pairs with a crotch rivet but no cinch back, the angled red tabs, mismatched buttons on flies and jackets, etc. Some of it does get to be just a bit affected, these are garments that are made by quite skilled artisans after all… but I feel like you have to appreciate that at least there are people out there who are trying to embody the vintage spirit, especially when it comes to the variation that can be seen in these WW2 pieces. edit: Got myself sorted with a properly sized rivet, and it seems he took a bit of inspiration from that favorite detail of yours @Double 0 Soul, not nearly as wonky though.

More hardware replacement, this time on the Neat Style Kiwami WW2. They came with a pre-rusted top button, which blew through the button hole stitching at a rate I’ve never seen before. I presume it’s from how abrasive the rusty button is. After a bit of deliberation about whether or not I wanted to have to keep shoring up the button hole once a month or just replace the button, I decided to replace the button with a virgin Laurel Leaf button, for period accuracy of course. Repaired button hole (excuse the amateur stitch work): New button:

I’ve been dying to see what all the hype used to be about regarding CSF, but there is no way I’d want to support the man behind the operation after reading the thread (if it would even be possible to get my hands on a pair.) So for the past few months I’ve been browsing Mercari and Yahoo; eventually I found a pair of Cushman 22501XX, lightly worn, for a nice price, and made the purchase. Well the jeans landed today and after a spin in the washer and drier I was trying them on and noticed an odd looking tear on the right pocket, when I took them off I was inspecting the stitching on the watch/coin pocket when I noticed the back of the rivet on the top of the right pocket looked loose, I put my finger nail in the gap between the rivet and the fabric and to my dismay it popped right off (I think @scooby had the same issue with his pair, guess it’s that authentic wartime workmanship haha.) Well then, not problem, I’ve got a bit of experience placing rivets, as I used one on the failing crotch of my LVC’s. Seems I’ve got a penchant for shoddy quality. The rivets I’ve got rolling around are a bit larger than the standard size used on denim, but the post fit through the hole in the jeans easily, and I don’t think it’ll be too noticeable.

I'm team patch pockets all the way. I own both versions, and the jacket I wear the most has them (WWII Impressions.) I can still stuff my hands in them when it's chilly, and they hold things, like a pair of gloves, better than slant pockets.

Thanks for the reminder @MJF9, don't know how I forgot about the M Series. @Muddy The M41057 (Lee WWII model) also features a nice wide leg, and can be had for a more reasonable price than other M series models, at least in my experience.

TCB 30's and SC2025 might be worth checking out, they both have very generous waist to thigh ratios.

That's a feature reserved for paid members now, seems your subscription is out of date.

Being most of these clothes are made with the Japanese consumer in mind, it's just Americana to them. Graphics from US schools, design hints from US military uniforms, etc. On top of that I think it's just the natural progression of Mil-Repro, as time plods on the wars this gear was worn in become more of a distant memory to the population, and it becomes more okay to wear as fashion. It's only a matter of time until we start seeing digital and multi-cam repros from some of these brands. On one hand, I think this particular jacket looks pretty good, but on the other I wouldn't be caught dead in it because anyone who knows what it is would think I was wearing my own old gear, or possibly worse, someone else's; just a situation I'd like to avoid. However, this doesn't stop me from wearing my 60s fatigue pants or WW2 style tanker jacket; nobody is going to ask me when I served, or even notice their ties to the military, because it's been so long since these items were actually worn as uniforms. As well as the fact that fashion culture has changed so dramatically since those times, you just don't see people returning from their time in the service needing to wear their uniforms as casual and work wear anymore.

I believe it's a repro of the US Army physical training uniform from the 2010s